This chapter discusses the lives of my grandparents and my mother and the challenges they faced before, during and after the Great Depression of 1929, for that catastrophic event impacted every aspect of their lives. For additional information about my parents as a married couple and me, my siblings and our children and grandchildren, visit KesslerKeslarKeslerFamilyHistory.Wordpress.Com.
Robert Eldridge Fairchild was my grandfather. He was born on December 4, 1879 in Flag Pond, Tennessee and died on July 4, 1922 at the age of 43. He was the oldest son of Dr. John Milton and Polly Fairchild. He married Amanda Smith (1882-1979) sometime prior to the birth of their first child, Jackson Milton (Jack) Fairchild in 1902. They had four other children: Charles Ernest (Ernest), Donnie Fairchild, Thomas (Tom) and Sue Kate Fairchild.
According to the 1900 U.S. Census on June 6, 1900 Robert is still living at home as is Mandy Smith, but they live only a short distance apart in Middle Fork Township, Madison County, North Carolina. Robert is living with his father John and mother Mollie. He is the oldest child. Other children listed on the Census are: Janie, Thomas, Rosco, Lillie and Joseph. The Census indicates that everyone in the family can read and write. This is important because in rural farming communities many families felt that formal education was less valuable the learning farming and household management.
In this same Census Amanda Elizabeth Smith is also living at home. Her mother, Donah “Donnie” Smith is listed as head of household. Living with her are Thomas (age 18), Mandy E. (age 16), George (age 14), Minnie (age 13), Della (age 8), and John (age 6). Of this group, including mother Donnie, only Thomas can read and write. The fact that Mandy E. is listed as age 16 on June 6, 1900 contradicts the birth date on her tombstone, which is listed as February 12, 1882, which would have made her age 18 in the Census. It is unclear which date/age is accurate.
Sometime between June 6, 1900 and mid-to-late 1901 Robert courted and married Mandy Smith. Since the lived near each other it is likely that they knew each other from a young age. Little did Amanda know the hard life she was entering into as she would mother five children then lose her husband at an early age and confront the harsh realities of the great depression from the late 1920s through and until World War I.
According to the U.S. Census conducted on April 23, 1910 Robert and Amanda are still living in Middle Fork Township, Madison County, North Carolina. There are listed as living at location #77. Robert is age 32 and Mandy is age 26 (again supporting the idea that she was born in 1884 rather than 1882). Children include Jackson (age 7) and Ernest (age 1). Next door at location #76 is the Donnie Smith family. Donnie is age 50 and she has George (age 24), Minnie (age 22), Della (age 18), and John (age 16) living with her. Their primary occupations are farmers.
By the U.S. Census taken on January 10, 1920, Robert and Amanda have moved to Asheville and Robert was working as a “carder” in a cotton mill. His age was 40 and Amanda was 37. The children included Jack (age 17), Ernest (age 11), Donnie (age 7), Thomas (age 4) and Susan (age less than one year). It is reasonable to assume that the shift from Middle Fork Township to Asheville was related to the need for factory workers during World War I, which was waged from 1914 to 1919. This decade was turbulent for many reasons in addition to the War. The Spanish Flu Pandemic swept the world in 1918, killing millions. The Russian Czar was overthrown in 1917 and Communism suddenly gained world headlines. There were massive strikes and bombing in American factories to protest working conditions and what were perceived as unfair labor practices. Certainly, these events shaped the home life of Robert and Mandy Fairchild and their children.
The 1920s were no less turbulent for the family. Robert died of Pellagra, a common illness during the 1920s, on July 4, 1922. In the early 1900s, pellagra reached epidemic proportions in the American South. Between 1906 and 1940 more than 3 million Americans were affected by pellagra with more than 100,000 deaths. Pellagra caused a person’s skin to crack and boil up in a similar fashion to leprosy, and victims eventually succumbed to dementia and death. “The source of pellagra,” wrote government officials, “that affects the South almost exclusively, is a disease chiefly due to inadequate diet; it responds to rather simple preventative measure, including suitable nourishing food.”
Amanda had to assume the role of bread-winner for the family on the eve of and into the Great Depression of 1929. According to my mother, Sue Kate, the family ran a boarding house during the Depression, with boarders paying rent and subsidizing family expenses. The oldest son Jack was in the military and away from home. During the Great Depression, Americans wondered how so many people could be hungry when the country’s farmers were producing so much food. North Carolina’s farmers were producing plenty of “cash crops” like cotton and tobacco, but they were not making enough money from these crops to afford food. Food was available but many people simply could not afford it. Between 1929 and 1932, the total amount that North Carolinians made from agriculture plummeted from $310.5 million to less than half that, $144.3 million. With too much cotton and tobacco and too little money to buy food, one government study reported that “too many southern families have simply done without, and as a result they have suffered severely from malnutrition and dietary diseases.”
At the time of the U.S. Census on May 2, 1930 as the Depression took root widow Amanda, son Thomas and daughter Sue were living with Amanda’s son Ernest, who is listed as head of household in Middle Fork Township. Also living with the family were Nellie C. Crowder, age 24, and her son Edward Cecil Crowder, age 7 (7/13/1922 – 8/6/1991). Nellie was one of Zettie Riddle’s daughters (Amanda’s niece).
This familial arrangement must have been particularly challenging since Ernest, as well as Tom and Donnie Fairchild all suffered from a hereditary eye disease named Retinitis Pigmentosa. The disease involves progressive degeneration of the retina’s light receptors. As the disease progresses the peripheral vision slowly constricts and the central vision is usually retained until late in the disease. By 1940 both Ernest and Tom were legally blind and could not sign their World War II draft registration cards. It can be assumed that Donnie’s vision had also reached near-blindness by 1940.
Clearly the family struggled during the 1930s as the effects of the Great Depression gripped the nation. As recounted to the author by Jack Fairchild, when he returned from military service his brother Tom had become seriously ill but the doctors and hospitals refused treatment because the family had no money or insurance. Jack said that he vowed at that time that they would never be in that position again and he and Tom worked hard at tobacco farming and saved their money (over $800,000 by the 1970s).
They lived and worked on the family farm in Middle Fork. The house, even in the 1970s, had no indoor plumbing or running water – the family used an outhouse. The home had electricity, but the frugal brothers, who never married, rarely used it, going to bed at dark and rising at first light. My mother, Sue recounted how it was her job to go to the nearby creek and bring buckets of water to the house. Over time Jack and Tom purchased two additional farms within walking distance of their primary residence.
According to the latest available U.S. Census taken on April 11, 1940, Amanda (age 58), Jack (age 37), Tom (age 25) and Sue (age 20) were living together in Middle Fork Township. They were also living at the same location in 1935 according to Census information. Jack and Tom were listed as farmers and Sue is listed as an at-home rug maker. Amanda’s brother, Thomas Jefferson Smith (age 59) and his wife Julie A. Smith (age 49) were living near the Fairchilds. John Allen (age 27) and Donnie Allen (age 27) and their son Denver B. Allen (age 8) and daughter Shelby Jean (age 1) were also living nearby.
Later in life Jack and Tom Fairchild gave up farming and purchased a multi-apartment building in Asheville. They lived in one unit but did not rent out the others. They let a female friend of Tom named Loretta, whom he had met at a group activity for visually-impaired people live in another of the units. They leased the farms in Middle Fork rather than sell them.
Donnie married John Emory Allen and raised a family. They moved to Swannanoa, North Carolina, near Asheville in the late 1940s and lived there the rest of their lives. Sue Kate Fairchild, my mother, was voted “most likely to succeed” at her high school. She told us that she sold her beloved pet hog in order to obtain bus fare to Baltimore during the 1940s, where Glenn L. Martin was hiring factory workers. She said that she could not wait to leave the farm. She met Edgar F. Kessler, Jr, at Glenn L. Martin, married, and raised a family in Baltimore, Maryland. Ernest Fairchild married and moved to Asheville where he raised a family.
American Generation #9 Robert Eldridge Fairchild, Wife and Children
Robert Eldridge Fairchild b: Dec 4, 1879, Flag Pond, Tennessee
d: Jan 2, 1932, South Toe Township, Yancey, NC
Amanda Smith Married (Robert Eldridge Fairchild abt. 1901) b: Feb 12, 1884, North Carolina
d: Dec 3, 1979, Mars Hill, NC
Children
| Jackson Milton Fairchild (Never married) | b: Aug 15, 1902, Asheville, Buncombe Cty, NC d: May 14, 1991, Asheville, Buncombe Cty, NC |
| Charles Ernest Fairchild (Married …) | b: Mar 13, 1908, Asheville, Buncombe Cty, NC d: Mar 1985, Asheville, Buncombe Cty, NC |
| Donnie “Mollie” Fairchild (Married John Emory Allen) | b: Jun 17, 1912, Asheville, Buncombe Cty, NC d: Sep 20, 2009, Swannanoa, NC |
| Thomas Fairchild (Never married) | b: Feb 11, 1915, Asheville, Buncombe Cty, NC d: Feb 3, 2017, Yancey County, NC |
| Sue Kate Fairchild (Married Edgar F. Kessler, Jr.) | b: Aug 9, 1919, Asheville, Buncombe Cty, NC d: Aug 16, 1986, Baltimore, Maryland |
MATERNAL ANCESTRY: AMANDA ELIZABETH (Mandy) SMITH
Amanda Smith was the daughter of William Spencer Smith and Donah “Donnie” Rice Smith. While the Smith family can only be traced one generation beyond Spencer Smith to his father (Thomas Smith) and mother (Jane Holcombe Smith), the Rice family can be more readily traced. In the various U.S. Census reports various Rice families are listed in close proximity to the Smith family. Donnie Rice’s parents were John S. Rice Jr (1829-1900) from Virginia and Mira Dessie Rice (1839-1923).
In the 1860 U.S. Census, the Rice family consists of John S. Rice, Jr. (1829-1900) and Mira (Dessie) Rice (1839-1923). The children include Donah Rice (age 11), Lyrie Rice (age 9), Douglas Rice (age 8) and Herchel Rich (age 4). In the 1880 Census Donah is gone from the household, but new additions to the family include John W. Rice (age 9), Mary E. Rice (age 4) and Dorey L. Rice (age 2).
In the 1880 Census taken on June 3, 1880 the Smith family consisted of Spencer Smith, age 23 whose occupation is listed as farmer, Donnie Smith, age 20, and Sarah E. Smith (Zettie), age 1. There are many Rice and Riddle families listed nearby. Zettie eventually grew up to marry Willard G. Riddle (see photo).
As noted earlier, in the U.S. Census taken on June 6, 1900, Donah “Donnie” Smith is listed as a widow and head of household. Her occupation is listed as farmer. Living with her are Thomas (age 18), Mandy E. (age 16), George (age 14), Minnie (age 13), Della (age 8), and John (age 6). Sarah “Zettie” has left home by this time, likely married to Willard Riddle. As noted early, Thomas Smith is the only one who can read and write in the household – all others, including Amanda have a “no” in the read and write columns.
The Allen family is also listed in the same 1900 U.S. Census for Middle Fork Township, District 0077, Madison County, North Carolina. Amanda’s daughter, Donnie Fairchild (obviously named after Amanda’s mother), grows up to marry John Emory Allen. In the 1900 U.S. Census John Allen is listed as 2 months old. The Smith family’s location in the Census is listed as #100. Just down the road at #64 is the Fairchild family.
The fact that Mandy E. is listed as age 16 on June 6, 1900 contradicts the birth date on her tombstone, which is listed as February 12, 1882, which would have made her age 18 in the Census. It is unclear which date/age is accurate. Since her brother, Thomas J. Smith was born in 1882 it is unlikely that Amanda was also born that year.
Thomas John Fairchild (b: 1915), Edgar F. Kessler III, and Jackson Milton Fairchild (1902-1991)
Jackson (Jack) Milton Fairchild (1902-1991) with Edgar Kessler III (photo taken in 1975)
Sue Kate Fairchild (1919-1986) at Donnie Allen’s Home in Swannanoa, N.C.
Donnie Fairchild Allen (1912-2009)
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